Free Resolutions by Jane A. Adams Page A

head.’
    â€˜This is about Karen, isn’t it?’
    â€˜It is indeed. Tim, I think I’ve been guilty of a grave misjudgement and I really don’t know yet what the consequences will be.’
    â€˜For George? Surely she can’t do anything about George. Isn’t he a ward of court or something?’
    â€˜I don’t think legal legitimacy will bother her, do you? But no, not just for George. I have this dreadful feeling that George is only one of her concerns.’
    Tim paused, turned his mentor to face him and stared intently into her face. ‘You really are worried,’ he said. ‘Rina, I’ve been through a lot with you these last few years; why should Karen coming back spook you so much now?’
    Rina sighed. She patted Tim’s hand and retrieved his arm, unable to look at him and still order her thoughts. To see Tim’s concern somehow unnerved her, but she could feel it anyway. Rina was never unable to meet his eye; Rina never dissembled with him and, he was right, they had shared some really frightening times.
    â€˜Tim, I’m afraid because I underestimated what Karen could become, I’m sure of it. Oh, she’s done nothing yet, not here anyway. It’s more . . . more the look of her, the way she has become so much her own person.’
    â€˜I thought she always was,’ Tim objected. ‘She always struck me as being very strong, very determined. The way she’d held the family together, protected her mother and brother. Rina, that took some doing.’
    â€˜It did indeed and that, Tim, is what I saw in her back last winter when she and George came into our lives. I admired her spirit, I admired her courage. I saw, I suppose, a little of myself in Karen’s tenacity and drive, and I wanted so much for her to have the chance to reach her potential. To be free to live her life and not have it blighted because she made what I thought at the time was a decision driven by desperation. So I did a very wrong thing, Tim: I let her leave when Mac knew she should be made to stay, face the consequences of what she had done.’
    â€˜Rina, dear, you’ve lost me. I know Karen tried to kill her father, but after what he’d put them through I’m not sure anyone could blame her for that.’ He paused. ‘That’s not what you’re talking about, is it?’
    â€˜No, Tim, it’s not. I’m talking about the death of Mark Dowling. The as yet unsolved murder of Mark Dowling.’
    â€˜Ah,’ Tim said.
    â€˜Ah, indeed.’
    â€˜You think Karen . . . why would Karen kill Mark Dowling? Rina, the list of people who wanted that nasty little . . . well, Mark Dowling out of the way – it would include half of Frantham, and I dare say the other half would have been pretty light on the objections. But you’re not just speculating, are you?’
    Rina shook her head and once more paused to lean on the promenade railing and stare out to sea. Sighing, Tim turned up the collar of his coat and shoved his gloved hands deep into his pockets, resigned now to being cold again, though glad they had not carried on past the end of the promenade and up the cliff. At least the yomp seemed to have been called off.
    â€˜Rina, why haven’t you told me this before? Does Mac know all of this?’
    â€˜Oh, Tim. Look, this is what we think happened, though you’ve got to understand, as far as I know, Mac had no proof, not concrete proof at least, not then.’ She took a deep breath and began. ‘Mark Dowling had been threatening George and his friend Paul. He found out about that stupid prank they played on Mrs Freer. In fact, it’s quite possible that fear of Dowling was what put them up to it in the first place. Anyway, as everyone now knows, Mark Dowling killed Mrs Freer, for which act may he burn in whichever hell people like him are consigned to.’
    â€˜Rina!’ Tim was genuinely shocked.